ah, matters to us, but me, that's why we listen to their stories. reporter every weekend on d. w. come had a teacher, he's counting the highlights you every week in your in box subscribe. now with this is did avenues, asia coming up today? an election that will determine thailand's course for years to come. the country has to hold for the government facing for ratings and bringing it back to challenge to the meeting, treats griffin pod plus in time it's military and prepares to defend the island. the armed forces conduct a tease of drills, practicing the response to a mock seaborne invasion ah

irish energy, welcome to dw news asia. nadia could join us. the stage is set for thailand to hold a general election in may after the distribution of parliament by government decree, current prime minister, paiute john or char launched the move, seeking to extend his time in office, the election bits him and the military backed establishment against an opposition block held by building a populist and to time former prime minister toxin. should i what his daughter bent on tongue she now what is the meeting candidate for prime minister? thought is lead and backed by toxeme, have won the most seats in every election since 2001 bought have been toppled from pop by military coups and court rulings. and joining us for more and this is tina and bong. so direct professor of political science, actually, lunk, on university in bangkok, mr. pumps to the right by has prime minister paiute john,

which i decided to seek new elections. now the lower house, i mean for yes, has expired. so he's forced to on elections. i've been delayed for some weeks and months because he was earlier in the car and but now the car right now, actually coming out on the 14th, does prime minister approach on which i believe that the current political climate might be mildly favorable to him. i don't think that he believes that if the environment is favorable to him because he would call an earlier lesson at the top. so at the same time, if you look at the, the trends in bangkok, thailand where i am now, you look at the various local parties, the momentum, the lack of performance government, and generally on lack of popularity. you can see that the momentum is not with them

. i think that the less and prospects are not good for him and you said united nation party. and that was the other course in government parties. so i think this election coming up is very close question. and by the way, for you audience, this is the most important election time. we have the last 2 decades, not just this yet. it will decide if you just type audit and finance and so on. and now they are setting up the government, but speaking of the opposition party, he's also facing a challenge from the beginning about family. how much popular support do they have? yes. is remarkable. i mean, i've been early up this, you know what family from 2 decades ago, 20 years ago. but again, this party has been to thought twice. this is a good time for that vehicle now. and it's going to win the election again based on

all of it. so there's something going on here and how come this party does it by me? twice in 2006 in 2014. this off. weiss, by the judiciary is still going to win this election. he says that kind of lecture is changing. they want the policy at that, that the party as perpetuated. ok. so this means basically that the popular voice is majority of the electorate. there was something else. they want a different kind of future that the conservative forces, the more you bring up, how much control does the military have or the outcome of this election? considerable, i mean it had decided to control before after it, who in 2014, we had a military government. and during that time she came up with its own kind of constitution give itself one birth control parliament. but nevertheless, it, it was able to form a cause in government,

2009 in the last election. but this time, despite stacking the rules this by haven't been power, 90 is still on course to lose the election. but this is where i think things will get tense and confrontational, and the military is not going to go away quietly. there's been a number of coups in thailand and it's not out of the imagination that acting the same way. again, you keep power along with the forces in pilot, and we've seen that judicial who's already judicial dissolution of parties. so it's not straightforward election, and i mean the difference of the forces led by they will do all they can't maintain power out. and what are the main issues that are likely to dominate this election campaign? a lot of other countries, you know, there are different lines, different issues that divide it, that the basic issue is,

is what kind of political or political framework should this country have? what kind of role should the military have? what kind of role should monarchy have within the constitution? and how the majority of electorate should be able to choose the will of the people should be able to choose the future of the country. so this is a main, i think, of fundamental comments in this election, but there are other issues about the welfare policies, about income redistribution, about close strategy development projects and so on. but overall, is about what kind of political framework that kind of you have with the military, the monarchy, bureaucracy, and the will of the people, political parties, democratic institutions, have democratic institutions have to prevail and see the traditional otherwise, people will not be happy, as we've seen in recent years, demonstrations we live at the time event so much for joining us to their fitness

function. there are functional. i'm going to investor in back. ok, thank you. the timelines military has practiced anti landing exercises in the north of the island, the dru, simulated propelling, and enemy force landing on a beatrice and troops fighting back invaders who entered residential areas. the drills come in the wake of the highest levels of tensions between taiwan and china . in recent years, paging is absurd and growing ties to the united states and taiwan. and his bowed to reunify the island by 2049 and generally not for more context in detail. correspondent william young. william, let's talk about these drills fast. do they give us an indication of how taiwan intends to fight off a potential chinese immersion? yes, indeed. this is an important cross military exercise that time one is

trying out between the air force and also the navy and the defense ministry has already said they will increase the frequency of such a cross military collaboration and drills because it's very important for time one to be able to actually carry out these different strategies and scenarios, and they're also going to have more senior trainers to start educating the younger pilots about the different kinds of scenarios and strategies that they will have to face in a real life battle. so i think this is a really important indicator about time once overall efforts putting into the national defense, especially after the over or reform that we saw that was laid out late last year. talk to us about this overall reform. what steps is tiwana taking to make sure it is capable of resisting possible chinese aggression?

so there are many different facets of this reform. one else, the most important part is the extension of the compulsory military service. originally, it was shortened down to 4 months spent. now is being extended back to at least one year. and at the same time, there are a lot more content of light life fire drills that are going to be included in the exercise. and also the training for the come, the conscripts, but at the same time for the reservists as well. because in the past, there were a lot of complaints about these trainings not being solid enough. so the ministry is now really putting in a lot of efforts to include real life life fire drills for these soldiers to have an experience in different kinds of scenarios and actually hands on experience with different types of weapons. and of course, we are also seeing a lot more military, a purchase that is going to be approved in the coming months and also years and,

and the united states is increasing its number of military personnel in taiwan to help the time when the soldiers to get familiarized with all the new weapons that are about to be approved from the washington over the next few years. william does type a think or chinese invasion is inevitable. i think that the moment the government stands is still that they don't think china is going to immediately launch any kind of military invasion. however, the threat and also the need for taiwan to increase its own capability and preparation is definitely rising compared to just a few years ago. so that's why we are seeing all these reforms being carried out. that's right around the time at the last of the current president time, once administration because she wants to make sure before she leaves office. there are these very important ground rules and also

a little framework in place. so down the incoming government, whoever that takes over from her is going to be able to continue down this new path of the beef of defense that we are seeing throughout the 87 years that she's been in power. let's talk about the quality in taiwan because he did talk about the i've got a president saying when you have a former time when he's president, my young joe, who will be in china next week. the 1st visit by a former leader since $949.00, he's from the opposition k m t. what does that see about how united tie one's polity is and resisting the threat from china? i mean, because next year in love in about 10 months, we are going to have a very important presidential election to decide the next president. that's why we are seeing the main opposition party going down really starting to engage with china again at a very frequent basis. was just a few months ago there,

deputy chair, person of the party also led a delegation to china and then they met some key chinese officials that are in charge of taiwan affairs. and so this visit by mine, joe, who until today still has a lot of influence inside the party is definitely a very important sign. the kmc is trying to differentiate itself from the ruling party, the d p. p, which has long been advocating for preserving taiwan sovereignty. and they came to note that they need to differentiate themselves from the d p. p. other time when the cross street tensions are rising and the international community is very concerned about the situation across the taiwan straits. so they want to, i think, present themselves as a party that's capable of maintaining communication between aging and ty, pay rather than the d p. p because we know that since time when took power in 2016

. basically, paging has cut off almost all official contact with ty paid for the last 7 years. and that is one of the factor that a lot of the international experts are saying it's increasing the level of uncertainty across the towns and attention. so the deep the campus definitely trying to present itself in a different role. that's it for today. ah . the green. do you feel worried about the planet? me too. i'm kneel, host of the on the grievance of cost and to me it's clear. we need to change the solutions or out there join me for a deep dive into the green transformation. for me to do with storing

said that most people for world over information, they provide them opinions. they want to express d, w on facebook and twitter, up to date and in touch. follow us with ah, i'm stephen beardsley in berlin. here's a look at our top stories. markets move in opposite directions after another bed interest rate hike is an end to the inflation battle inside were could there be bigger challenges ahead? international airlines are unhappy with india's tight fisted control over the countries lucrative aviation market. and it's preference for a hometown operation. we'll have more from delhi also on our show,

brazil reports progress in the fight against illegal gold mining for community se the damage is already done. welcome to our show. the latest rate hike by the u. s. federal reserve was pushing markets in different directions as investors puzzle out its broader implications in asia markets rose on hopes that the quarter point rate hike announced by fed chair jerome powell would be one of the last that was after shares on wall street fell. we address investors, they're focusing on power comments about a possible credit crunch among banks. concerns over the banking sector, remain high after recent high profile failures sparked in part by those raised borrowing rates. and we're joined now by carson. jesse. he's chief economist, that i and g germany, carson, welcome back to the show that we both know the fed is in an unenviable position. it has to on the one hand, protect the stability of banks which have been effected by fast raising.